I had a TIA! At least that's what they said in the emergency room when they couldn't find anything else to explain it. (TIA: Transient Ischemic Attack, also known as a short-term stroke, a precursor to a full, all-out stroke.)
I had a roaring sinus infection accompanying a painful ear ache and went to the doctor (OK, a nurse practioner, the doctor being unavailable), and I couldn't remember "Coumadin" when I was asked what medications I was taking. I finally came up with "Warfarin" which satisfied her and caused her to say "Coumadin" which didn't even sound familiar. I also tried to tell her the antibiotic that I had just been on for my ear infection, but had to mentally thrash around to come up with "Keflex" from a mental image of the prescription. That didn't sound familiar or in-context, either, but it satisfied her and I let it go.
On the way out to the car, I called Carolyn as I normally do, and couldn't remember how to place the call. I mentally thrashed around again and tried something which connected me to voice-mail. I then tried something else which succeeded.
An hour later, I went shopping with Carolyn. She sent me to put some packages in the trunk. I couldn't remember how to open the trunk! More thrashing. I focused on the mysterious button under the dash board. I didn't know what it was for and there was absolutely no mental association of it with the trunk, but I remembered that I had pushed it often and seemingly never when the car was in motion. I tried it and the trunk opened. My satisfaction at this result was short lived as I realized that it seemed like a brand new discovery -- learning about a relationship that I had never before known. This disturbed me because logic said that this should be a well-known and long-understood relationship.
At that point, I talked Carolyn into dropping me off at the ER to find out what was happening to me.
An hour later as I lay in the ER, I realized that all had become clear again and that I remembered, knew, and understood all those things that had been a mystery a short time before. They took a CT scan of my skull and failed to find any evidence of a blood clot but they did note that all my sinuses and my left ear were infected. They took an x-ray of my chest looking for something mysterious and didn't find it but did note my broken ribs. The nurse also placed in my record her observation that I was wobbly when she led me to the room. I don't remember that but do remember that she appologized for not placing me in a wheelchair for the trip. Not having anything else to go on, they said it was a TIA and instructed me to see my primary care physician for follow up. I did, and she decided that it didn't look like a TIA and concluded that it was simply a lack of blood sugar. She was the first of several over the next couple of weeks to express dismay at the fact that we don't really have regular meals in our house. I didn't realize it was that big a deal.
But now we refer to any "senior moments" as TIA's. We've both been having them regularly ever since then.
Sunday
9 years ago
